Skofja Loka To Katja Majerhold

July 28, 2023

Here are some shots from last night in Skofja Loka. I'm going to spare you the details about what we did and what we ate. Let's just say it was a lovely evening. Today's adventure was much more interesting, anyways.

Second, what's with all the landscape shots, anyways? I'm sorry. It can't be helped, the scenery begs for these types of photos. So, blame the incredible country of Slovenia, and not the photographer:P

I like the dappled light from the shadow of the adjacent tree.

The Selska Sora River and the old town on the right.

The first part of today's ride to Kranj. Unpleasant, and busy.

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The second part of today's ride. Amazing, but brutal.

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I'm not exactly sure what I was thinking when I planned our route for today sitting at home back in Vancouver many months ago. It is clear the navigator (me) was not of sound mind at the time. Perhaps, I was feeling just a tad too ambitious at the time.

Let's flashback to last night. After returning from dinner, Sue and I usually pull up the following day's route and take a closer look at it. It wasn't a particularly long day of cycling, but what jumped out at us was the almost 1800m of climbing in a short 63kms.

Today's ride can be broken down into three sections; a long slog gaining over 600m from SL to Lake Jezeru; along what appeared to be a busy road with no shoulder. Then, there was a 400 meter climb past Lake Jezeru to the Austrian border, and then a 300 meter descent. The third part, I will talk about later, because we're still recovering from that one.

In the backs of our minds we had a plan, though.

We set off in the morning for Kranj. I'll just say that this was not a pleasant ride, and it really started our day off on the wrong foot. First off, I forgot to download the map for Slovenia onto my Garmin GPS head unit. Duh. So, this made route finding a bit of a challenge, as you can imagine. So, we resorted to stopping frequently and pulling out our phones to consult Google maps to find out where we were; seeking the smaller and quieter roads along the way. Unfortunately, we found ourselves on busy roads for a majority of this part of the ride. A pain, really. And, this made us harken back to the days before all this new fandangled gadgetry arrived in our hands, when we just used the reliable paper map.

We battled heavy and noisy traffic into Kranj and once we arrived, we made our decision for an auto-assist and decided to bypass the busy road from Kranj to Lake Jezeru by hiring a van. When the van arrived, we hoisted the bikes into the rear of the van, and off we went. Since there were no train lines to hop on, this was a suitable option; and, as we drove up towards the Lake we were glad we did. The road was narrow and busy with most people headed for the lake . Add on the road construction, and we knew we had made the right decision. What we didn't know, but would find out later......WE REALLY MADE THE RIGHT DECISION.

Ahhh. We finally arrived at the peaceful Lake Jezeru, the highest large alpine lake in Slovenia. The Grintovec group of mountains in the background. This mountain range is the Kamnik-Savinja Alps which borders Austria.

We sat and absorbed the incredible surroundings, shared a quick meal, and began our climb to the Austrian border.

Sue climbing out of the lake area. The Kamnik-Savinja Alps.

The sign indicates the region we are in.

Might as well throw one of me climbing, too!

A few good switchbacks up to the Austrian border.

Once at the top we reached Jezerski Pass (or the Seebergsattel if you're Austrian), at an elevation of 1218m above sea level. We had a little break at the mountain hut, then an exhilarating descent through several flowing switchbacks until we made a right turn on to Vellach road. This is when we knew for sure that we had made the right decision to take a van. The road reared up, and didn't let up. For the next 7kms, the gradient kicked up to a consistent 13-15%, with some 19% in there to add some extra pepper to the climb. With loaded bikes, we crept along at 6-7kms an hour. It was an unrelenting climb, and we kept on thinking that the gradient would ease, but it never did. Take a look at the elevation profile in the map above and see for yourself. Brutal. Thank goodness we lopped off that first 30kms of today's ride, otherwise this would not have been a pleasant way to end a long day. It was nice to have fresh legs for this climb, that's for sure! I'm pretty sure I've been put on probation as the navigator.

Yep. Steep. Around every switchback we thought, 'Surely, it has to ease off now.' But, it never did.

Some bits of shade as the gradient eased.

We entered back into Slovenia at Pavlicev Sedlo pass at 1338m, and we were rewarded with our stay at our mountain accommodations, Planinski dom Majerhold Katja. This place was a gem! Tranquil, friendly, incredible views, excellent room, and just the perfect place to find ourselves at the end of a hard effort. We are in a very remote part of Slovenia now.

Arrival at Planinski dom Majerhold Katja. Look at that view!

The main restaurant. The other buildings that surround it are little bungalows and cabins. So, peaceful.

There is really no menu here. You just eat whatever they are serving. A great beef broth noodle soup, then a hearty beef and potato stew, then a desert. I can't say enough about this family run refugio. It tops our favorite places that we've stayed at.

Good night. A waxing gibbous moon. The next full moon is August 1st.

Tomorrow looks to be an interesting day. Looks to be some gravel riding ahead on our way to Ravne!

Today's ride: 35 km (22 miles)
Total: 368 km (229 miles)

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Rachael AndersonWhat a beautiful place to stay’
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9 months ago

Scott FenwickPatrick, I have a feeling that my client would have fired me with your route planning today. The second part of the ride would have been a full day for us. Sue is a real trooper! But what a great place that you have discovered.
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9 months ago

Patrick O'HaraHi Scott. Oh...I was close to being fired alright. Now, Sue has an even more scrutinizing eye at my route planning. I'm now on probation. She is one tough cookie.
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9 months ago